The Search for Loch Ness
by LoveHGSS
Summary: Luna takes George and Hermione on a journey. Will they finally admit that they have feelings for each other, or will Ron throw them overboard because the tension is too high? Bits of DH thrown out.


Summary – Luna takes George and Hermione on a journey. Will they finally admit that they have feelings for each other, or will Ron throw them overboard because the tension is too high?

Disclaimer – I own nothing but the plot.

"I'M ON A BOAT!"

Hermione Granger jumped, startled from the sudden outburst. She looked at the tall redhead, who was leaning over the rail, staring down at the ocean, his arms stretched out to either side. He looked like he was trying to be Rose from Titanic, awaiting his Jack. She couldn't help but giggle at the idea. She shifted in her cushioned lawn-style chair, setting her romance novel aside.

"Where did that come from, George?" she asked, squinting up at him as the sun peaked around the sparse clouds.

He turned towards her, a large smile gracing his face. "Some ridiculous song I heard on the Muggle radio station. It fit our situation perfectly, huh?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, but instantly regretted it as the high sun stung them. "Why were you listening to a Muggle radio station?" she asked, laughing.

"'Why' you ask, darling?" he said, turning completely around now. "But what you really should be asking yourself is why _not_?"

"George, I think you've been in the sun long enough," she replied, still laughing.

"Babe, we _are_ on a boat, so it's hard to not be in the sun unless we're below deck," he said matter-of-factly.

"Will you stop using the pet names?" she asked, one of her eyes slowly closing against the sun, causing George to laugh at the look on her face.

"Sweet cheeks, if I did that you would think I was mad at you again."

She made a low grumbling noise before going back to her book. George walked over quietly and snatched the book out of her hands with a quickness she didn't think he possessed. She made to grab for the book but George stepped back, out of her reach. He scanned the page as she jumped off her chair, grabbing for the book again. He chuckled and easily held it above her head.

"Oh, oh, ooooh," he said in a teasing tone. "What do we have here, love? A romance novel, really? Let's see, where did my princess leave off?"

"George Davidius Weasley!" she screamed. "You give me that book back _this minute_!"

"What I find entertaining is that the main characters name just _happens_ to be George, and, like us, sweetheart, they are on some type of adventure. Oh, would you just look at that! 'His hands were everywhere on her body, caressing, stroking, teasing.'" George looked at Hermione, who's head was hung in shame. With the book still lifted, he took his other hand and put his fingers under her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "Is that what you want, Hermione?"

She looked at him and was shocked that his face was serious, his eyes bright blue boring into hers. "No," she said weakly.

"Do you want me to touch you?" he asked, cupping her cheek with his hand. "Do you want me to caress you?" His fingers trailed, feather light, along her jaw line to her neck. "To stroke you?" His thumb brushed along her cheek as her eyes stared unwavering back into his. "To tease you?" Her eyes fluttered against the brilliance of the sun as his face started to lower, his lips a mere centimeter away from hers.

"Oh my goodness, Wrackspurts!"

Hermione started and stepped back quickly from George, stunned at how far she let him go this time. She surveyed the upper deck of the white boat quickly, and saw Luna about fifty feet away, looking at a seagull through her Spectacles, not even noticing the pair. She mentally slapped herself, thinking back to George. The sexual tension between them had been almost tangible for the past three weeks they had been on the boat, but, as usual, Hermione never took him as serious. She thought that perhaps he was just making fun of her obvious crush on him.

George looked at Hermione and saw her blink furiously, momentarily stunned at the moisture in her eyes. He hated the way she thought he was just messing with her head, when in fact he felt as though she was screwing with _him_. He'd always had a thing for her, but because his brother seemed like the obvious choice and he, being the good brother he was, backed off immediately. And now here they were, more than fifteen years after their first meeting, on a boat, in search of something they never thought they'd actually find.

"Oh, Hermione, George," Luna called to them in her typical mystic-like voice. "I didn't even see you two there."

Luna made her way over as Hermione shuffled her feet, trying to look anywhere but George. George, however, was staring intently at Hermione, not acknowledging Luna whatsoever.

"Hi, Luna," Hermione mumbled, staring at her bare feet.

"Am I interrupting something?" she asked, glancing at the sky. "Did you two admit your love to each other yet? Because it would make everyone feel much more comfortable around the two of you, you know."

Hermione's head whipped up and she stared, stunned, at Luna, who was wearing a bright green sundress, her waist length blonde hair tied back. She glanced at George, who was still staring at her without any trace of humor on his face. Without a word, Hermione walked to the redhead, violently took her book back, even though there was no fight from him, and began to walk away.

"Did I say something wrong?" Luna asked George as Hermione went through the door leading to the lower deck.

"No," he said quietly, his eyes focused on the door. "No, Luna, you didn't say anything wrong."

"Well, then why did Hermione storm off that way? I thought everyone knew you two were in love?"

George finally looked at Luna. "Apparently Hermione doesn't know that."

Luna laughed lightly. "It always happens that way, you know? People who love each other, I mean."

"Yeah," George said quietly, even though he had _no_ idea what she meant.

"I mean," she said, cocking her head to the side, "you know you love Hermione, right?"

George didn't know how to answer that. Sure, he knew she was perfect in just about every way, and he wanted her in any way possible, but love? "Yes," he finally said. "Yes, Luna, I do love her."

"Oh," Luna said simply. "Well, she's in love with you, so you might want to figure something out pretty soon."

"And how would you know how she feels?" he asked.

"Well," Luna said, "she stares at you a lot, when you aren't looking. She smiles when you call her cute names, even if she tells you she hates them. She's been reading romantic books a lot lately, but at Hogwarts she used to say only people who were looking for love read them, and she would never be caught reading one of those. Not to mention the fact that she didn't fight for you to not come with me on this journey."

George thought about this for a minute. "She didn't really have a choice to me coming or not though, Luna, you asked me to come along."

"Oh I know, but I asked her if it was alright that you came before I asked."

"And what exactly did she say?" George asked, crossing his arms.

"She went all red in the face and said she didn't mind at all," Luna said with a laugh. "She pretended to not really care, but she looked really excited. Which is good because I know the only reason you're here is because Hermione is."

"No, Luna, that's not the only reason," he said quickly.

"It is," she said confidently, smiling at him. "As long as Hermione's happy, I don't care who you are."

George looked at Luna, completely confused by her statement, but before he could ask, she twirled around a few times, humming some song before walking away, leaving him standing there alone. He flopped down into Hermione's vacated chair and thought long and hard about Hermione and how exactly he had managed to wind up on the boat in the first place….

_**Flashback**_

George was in the workshop, awaiting Hermione's arrival. They had become business partners two years after the war had ended. He had recruited her to be his partner when he realized he really needed one. Well, more like begged until she finally caved, but that's neither here nor there. She was resistant at first, but she _did_ need a job, and he offered a fair sum of money to basically just sit around and try to come up with more efficient ways of creating the ingredients for his products. They had been working together for about two days when George decided he still wanted Hermione as his, but kept it platonic for quite some time.

When he had first made mention of possibly taking her on a date, she huffed and puffed and stormed away, leaving a very confused George standing alone in the shop. After the fifteenth or so time he asked (he's very persistent) she finally screamed 'just because everyone thinks I have a thing for you does not mean that you can make fun of me when it pertains to something so serious', and that just confused him more. He stopped asking after that.

On that day, five years later, they were still working together, and George was still quietly pining over every cute little face she made, or the way she laughed at his stupid jokes, or how she would smack him in the back of the head when he said something inappropriate. That day Hermione came in with Luna Lovegood, her long time friend and frequent visitor of the joke shop.

"Good morning, cupcake," he said with a large smile, addressing Hermione before turning to Luna. "Good morning, Luna."

"Hello," she said politely. "Would you care to join Hermione, Ron, and myself on a journey to find the Loch Ness monster?"

George choked on the tea he was taking a sip of and Hermione walked over quickly to pat him on the back. "I'm sorry, Luna, I don't think I heard you correctly."

"Did you hear me ask you if you wanted to accompany Hermione, Ron, and myself on a journey to find the Loch Ness monster?" she asked dreamily.

"That sounds about right," George said slowly, glancing back to Hermione's face, and he could tell that she was hiding her laughter.

"Well," Luna said after a moment, "would you like to?"

"I don't mean to be rude, Luna, but what the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about getting on a boat and looking for the Loch Ness monster," she said enthusiastically. "Father has been trying to write about one for years, so I promised him that I would look someday, and seeing as Ron and I just got married, it would be a good time to take a bit to figure out what I want to do next. So, I thought perhaps looking for the Loch Ness monster for a month or two would help to clear my head."

George stared at Luna for a while before glancing at Hermione again, silently asking what the hell was going on. Thankfully, Hermione informed him. "You remember that boat Harry bought your dad a few years back?"

"Yes," George said quickly, chuckling as he remembered the look on his father's face. Priceless to say the least.

"Well, he's agreed to allow Ron and Luna to use it for however long they need, and Luna wanted to go looking for the Loch Ness monster," she explained with a struggled serious expression. "Since Ron has been working at the Ministry as an Auror for the last seven years and has not used any holiday time, he had about four months built up and decided he wants to do whatever Luna wants to do."

"What do I have to do with this?" he asked.

This time, Luna answered. "Well, Ron suggested that I might get a bit lonely with it just being him and I so I thought I would invite Hermione, and she needs someone to keep her company, and because you two are practically inseparable, I chose you, and Ron agreed. We'd be happy to have you."

George looked at Hermione, whose cheeks were slightly pink before turning back to Luna's large blue eyes. "Where exactly are we going?"

"Oh, all over," she said excitedly. "Nessie could be anywhere around Scotland by now. I don't think she'd go very far. We're just going to travel around until we find it."

"And if we don't find it?" he asked.

"Well at least we could say we've had a wonderful holiday together," she said happily.

"Do you want me to come, pumpkin?" George asked Hermione.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Would it matter?" she asked with a chuckle.

"Of course, sweet pea," he said with a large, white toothed smile. "I wouldn't want to come if it would bother you."

"It would not _bother_ me," she said teasingly. "And stop with the damn pet names already!"

"Babe, it's been almost six years and you tell me that every day," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Are you coming or not?" she demanded, her hands on her hips.

George leaned over, grabbing her hand from her hip and bringing it to his lips, placing a gently kiss on her knuckles. "Well, I don't want to make you beg, love, so yes, I'll come."

_**End Flashback**_

Anger started to rise up in George, thinking about Hermione's reaction to the things he does to her. If she wants him, she wouldn't act that way… right? With a determined look, George pushed out of the chair and stormed to the door for the lower deck and ripped it back, stomping down the stairs and to Hermione's room. He thought about just walking in, but Hermione would have a conniption. Deciding it would probably be better _not_ to anger her, he rapped on the door, his foot tapping impatiently as he waited.

Hermione whipped the door open and stared up at George. "What do you want?" she asked heatedly.

"Do you love me?" he asked bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Hermione said, taken aback.

"Do… you… love… me?" he asked, very slowly and a little louder than he needed to.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked, but her eyes started to shift this way and that, obviously uncomfortable.

"Bloody hell, Hermione!" he shouted, throwing his hands up in the air. "Just answer the question!"

"Yes!" she screamed back at him. "Alright, yes, I love you, are you happy? Go laugh it up!"

She made to close the door in his face but George put his hand against it, forcing it to stay open. "Why would I laugh it up?" he asked hotly.

"Oh, please!" she said, trying to keep back the tears she knew were coming. "You think it's _so_ funny, George, always making comments to me or calling me cute names. It's not funny to me!"

He stared at her, wide-eyed. "You are out of your bloody mind."

"Bullshit!" she said.

"Fucking hell, Hermione, what do I have to do to make you believe that _I love you too_?" he shouted, so frustrated he wanted to hit something.

"You know wha-," she started to shout, but then stopped. "What?"

"I love you," he said, his voice just over a whisper now. "I have for a long time, Hermione; I never said anything to intentionally hurt you. To be honest, I thought you were messing with me, not the other way around."

"Please tell me you're joking," she whispered back.

"Why would I joke about this?" he asked. "Hermione, I've had feelings for you since I can remember. I mean, just look at you." He held his hands up when she glared at him. "You were always gorgeous but after getting to know you I was helplessly in love with you. You're out of my league, you really are, but I don't care."

"You're wrong, you know." Upon George's confused look, Hermione continued. "I'm not out of your league."

Without warning, George cupped Hermione's face and lowered his lips to hers. There were no fireworks, no ground moving reaction, but when his lips met hers, they felt something much better. It felt right. He walked them into the room and Hermione shut the door with her foot, both of them giggling when George picked her up and threw her onto the bed. Only a few feet above them, Luna wrapped her arms around her husband, who was looking at her in disbelief.

"Told you," she said proudly.

Ron rolled his eyes and kissed her temple. "You did. I don't think we should tell them that we aren't even looking for that sea monster."

Luna considered this. "No, but maybe we'll keep 'looking for Nessie' for another few weeks."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea, love."

And it was.

_A/N – Whether it be a smiley face or a million words, please take just a moment to review! Thank you!_


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